Reconstructed several times from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, Newgate Prison in London housed many types of criminals from debtors to female/male convicts during the Victorian era. Newgate prison existed across from the Old Bailey—a criminal court. In Victorian England, Newgate prison was known for its harsh living arrangements and unsanitary conditions. Cells were packed with prisoners—up to thirty at a time—and vermin ran rampant. 

The last reconstruction of Newgate prison took place in the 18th century under the direction of George Dance. Dance’s new designs for Newgate prison included isolated cells for prisoners described as the “most dismal places” (Kalman, 52). The prison was inverted, and all windows faced inward to give the feeling of confinement. This was due in part to Dance’s admiration of Italian architect, Palladio, who thought that a prison which lodged ‘meaner’ citizens who should have ‘fewer ornaments’—essentially meaning that the prisoners of Newgate did not deserve proper living conditions.  

In his short writings, Sketches by Boz, Charles Dickens wrote an insightful sketch of Newgate prison. Dickens described the prison as a machine of death that worked to kill its prisoners. Dickens writes, “men in full health and vigor, in the flower of youth or the prime of life, with all their faculties and perceptions as acute and perfect as your own; but dying, nevertheless.” One can see that Dickens visit to Newgate Prison struck a chord in his mind as he would relate the same sentiment of flowers and horticulture to describe Wemmick in Great Expectations some thirty years later, “It struck me that Wemmick walked among the prisoners much as a gardener might walk among his plants.” 

 Works Cited

“'A Visit to Newgate', from Charles Dickens's Sketches by Boz.” British Library, https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/a-visit-to-newgate-from-charles-dicke....

Kalman, Harold D. “Newgate Prison.” Architectural History, vol. 12, SAHGB Publications Limited, 1969, pp. 50–112, https://doi.org/10.2307/1568336.

Nicholas, Stephen, and Deborah Oxley. “Living Standards of Women in England and Wales, 1785-1815: New Evidence from Newgate Prison Records.” The Economic History Review, vol. 49, no. 3, [Economic History Society, Wiley], 1996, pp. 591–99, https://doi.org/10.2307/2597766.